Am I a bad anarchist if I actively participate and endorse in political processes in addition to supporting more direct methods? I mean in the few times I’ve found the two truly mutually exclusive I of course back direct action, but like I’ll fail to see why I have to choose between writing to congress about issues AND also supporting direct action initiatives. I’m just afraid of throwing away tools just because they aren’t On Brand or something.

vagaybond:

daggers-drawn:

No you’re fine. Anything you find useful to the accomplishment of your overall goals is a tool worth keeping.

(i hope its ok to contribute to this dialogue, i dont want to hijack and its ok to say its not ok)

my general gauge of whether or not to do something is if I feel anything is a compromise, if it’s ultimately worth the energy that goes into it. (i mean i’m going at this as a spoonie but i think this is probably a good thing for activists to think about in general to try and figure out which tasks to prioritize.)
if it means asking nicely and direct action both, then that is still always worth it to me. neither of these offers compromise, they’re just different ways of meeting the same ends. (I mean as long as you aren’t intentionally putting one already marginalized group down to fanagle different & sometimes overlapping issues – like how Slutwalk majorly threw racialized women and sex workers under the bus in ye olden days)
sometimes one or the other is more accessible or a more effective strategy for some specific situation, so you may as well do whatever you feel able to do. it’s all good stuff

I feel like anarchism is intuitively pragmatic so yeah, this.